Irish golfers disappointed that the PGA Championship

Keegan Bradley flew the flag for Irish America as he won the U.S. PGA Championship on Sunday, but Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington had little to cheer after a disappointing final major of the season.

U.S. Open champion McIlroy finished in a disappointing tied 64th position at the Atlanta Athletic Club after a closing 74 left him 11 over par for the final major of the year.

Harrington finished alongside McIlroy on 11 over and in a tie for 64th place, and must now play in this week’s Wyndham Championship in North Carolina to try to qualify for the PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs.

McIlroy had to play through the pain of a wrist injury picked up on only the third hole in Thursday’s first round but survived to make the cut.

McIlroy will resume playing at the European Open in Switzerland next month.
“I want to try and finish as high up in the Race to Dubai,” McIlroy told www.irishgolfdeskcom as he looked ahead to the rest of his season after putting problems cost him dearly in Atlanta.

“It would be great to win a couple more times because I want to try to end the season well. Even though I won one tournament, which was a major, I still want to win a few more times to call this season a success.”

Harrington had hoped to take his family to the Bahamas for a holiday next week but must now play in the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, to try and secure his qualification for the lucrative FedEx Cup series.

“I was going out on Saturday and Sunday thinking if I played well on the weekend, I wouldn’t have to play next week and go on my holidays,” Harrington told www.irishgolfdesk.com.

“I don’t know where I stand, but the intention was to play good golf this weekend and now I have to go next week. Such is life. I don’t know where I am.

“The FedEx Cup? I’d obviously like to play in it. And the way it’s designed, you never know, you win the first one, you can win it outright even in the last position. So yeah, who knows.”